From Yelp:
Ian Y.Traveling gourmandBrooklyn, NYComplimentSend MessageFollow This Reviewer7/7/2011 1 Check-in HereI hesitate to recommend Dr. Fagelman. As a physician I would give him four stars, but running a practice is more than being a good doctor. My problem lies in his staff's consistent operational inefficiencies and lack of expertise. On my first visit I waited an hour and forty-five minutes for ten minutes of his time. During that visit one of his staff members clearly didn't understand the medical equipment she was using, evidenced by her needing help plugging it into the wall. She continued to improperly use the equipment throughout my appointment. Things happen. Maybe it was a bad day, so I didn't draft a review. Then...On a follow-up visit I waited 40 minutes for a vaccine that should have taken five and was placated with a blood pressure check. When I questioned the routine the staffer shrugged her shoulders, said that's what she does and left me waiting in a room without any idea of when to expect the doctor. A routine vaccine turned into an hour of wasted time. I expressed my concern with Dr. Fagelman and he seemed genuinely concerned. I like Dr. Fagelman. He's a personable and professional physician. His office is also very close to mine, so a lot of my coworkers go to him. Sadly, they have experienced the same frustrations with his practice, which prompted me to write this review with the optimism that he takes this to heart, adopts a more efficient process, and hires a more qualified medical staff.
From Yelp:
Karl H.I work an honest day and I deserve an honest meal.Los Angeles, CAComplimentSend MessageFollow This Reviewer11/3/2011Fagelman runs his practice out of a place called "Soho Health" and it is a hipster establishment all the way through. Attitude from the staff, bad art on the walls, creaky loft floors.The doctor himself sits behind a big Apple computer and just reads things off the screen, periodically looking over with a kind of blank expression. He does not go into much detail about the specifics of any test, diagnosis, or prescription. Honestly, he kind of reminds me of the doctor from the movie "Idiocracy" who just flips through a stack of papers and says, "yep, you're kind of screwed up."The wait time at his office is always close to an hour and there is never so much as an apology given. He is also not the best about returning calls and his staff screwed up on the location for a referral. Once again, no apology, the usual hipster attitude that YOU must be kind of uptight or something.I prefer my doctors to me incredibly thorough, descriptive, and attentive to small details. Like most people, I value my health more than anything else and I can handle more than just some guy clicking away on his Apple and reading off results. Go elsewhere. I have.
From Yelp:
danielle R.Summit, NJComplimentSend MessageFollow This Reviewer6/9/2011Not sure where the positive reviews come from; I must have come on an off day because this guy was a total bust.He didn't see me until an hour after my scheduled appointment and gave me 3 minutes of his time. I told the nurse my whole health history, explained all of my symptoms, what kinds of treatment I had had so far, etc. He came in, didn't explain anything, didn't address any of my concerns, acted like I was making symptoms up, and told me to go see an ENT and prescribed an antibiotic, like the other negative reviewer here. If insurance hadn't covered most of my visit I'd have asked for my money back. Another review says he made time for an extra appointment on a fully-booked Sunday. Not sure if he just has this doc mixed up with another one, but he doesn't even make appointments on Sunday.
However the adminstration of the office is what's causing clinical signs of stress in me- And I've never even been to the goshdarned surgery!
The automated bill production process has generated so many invoices for the same thing it's more than cost the value of the balance in stamps.
We are being followed by a bill back from NY to home in Australia (that I swear to god we paid before we left). I don't know how many times you are expected to pay the insurance balance of USD40.09 but really, enough is enough. There's only so many times you can call the office to query it, settle it, confirm it's settled, etc etc before you start lying on the floor and twitching.
So, "Mate"... if you're reading this.. please stop with the bills, we paid.
However, his staff can be hit or miss. There have been times when everything goes smoothly and I get my prescriptions called in on time, there are other times when I have to call them repeatedly day after day for it to get done. Sometimes I can get a same-day appointment with him before he even opens for office hours, other times I will stop in and get yelled at by his staff to call before I come. Once I was even berated over the phone for calling to get a referral faxed to my allergist.
I hate that I can't give him a full-on 5 star approval, but the office is just so bipolar. I have told him about it too and things seemed to get better for awhile, but then it regressed. If he wasn't so great and if the location wasn't so convenient, I would have switched doctors.
First of all, the room where he examines patients also doubles as his office. You walk in, on the left there is your normal examination bed/chair with the white paper over it. To the right is a large desk, CEO wheely chair, complete with enormous computer and all the trimmings. He encouraged me to set in a chair in front of the desk while he sat at the computer. I felt like I had been called into my boss's office, and the level of respect was about the same.
Then he proceeded to finish making a few calls, one to a man that he told his chlamydia test had come back positive. Great, I need to sit in on that convo with a 102 fever feeling like I'm about to die. Then while I was trying to tell him my symptoms he continued to type on his computer, answering emails, surfing the internet, who knows. Just when I thought I might get his attention, when he was done with the calls and the computer, he pulled out his Blackberry and starts typing away on it.
I doubt he heard anything I said. Being a new patient I was trying to explain my past history of throat infections so he could evaluate my current condition more effectively. But instead, he looks at my throat for 30 seconds, and then prescribes an antibiotic that turned out to do nothing, leaving me to be sick for over a week and end up in a ear, nose and throat specialist's office and almost the ER. I could tell the ENT doctor was trying to be nice, but she clearly stated at one point that she had no idea why he would prescribe me with the medication that he did, that it is the least affective antibiotic for this sort of thing.
WOW! I will never return to see Dr. Fagelman again. I don't recommend anyone else see him if they value their health.
The corrupt Det that finally called me two weeks later to attempt to beat me just emotionally over the phone in to submission asked me why I past her. I said if you had gone to the office like you said you would you would know she sits by the exit. He was not able to piece together how odd it is for a receptionist to get out from behind the reception desk and follow another patient around verbally berating them and than violently give me the finger.
From Yelp:
However the adminstration of the office is what's causing clinical signs of stress in me- And I've never even been to the goshdarned surgery!
The automated bill production process has generated so many invoices for the same thing it's more than cost the value of the balance in stamps.
We are being followed by a bill back from NY to home in Australia (that I swear to god we paid before we left). I don't know how many times you are expected to pay the insurance balance of USD40.09 but really, enough is enough. There's only so many times you can call the office to query it, settle it, confirm it's settled, etc etc before you start lying on the floor and twitching.
So, "Mate"... if you're reading this.. please stop with the bills, we paid.
However, his staff can be hit or miss. There have been times when everything goes smoothly and I get my prescriptions called in on time, there are other times when I have to call them repeatedly day after day for it to get done. Sometimes I can get a same-day appointment with him before he even opens for office hours, other times I will stop in and get yelled at by his staff to call before I come. Once I was even berated over the phone for calling to get a referral faxed to my allergist.
I hate that I can't give him a full-on 5 star approval, but the office is just so bipolar. I have told him about it too and things seemed to get better for awhile, but then it regressed. If he wasn't so great and if the location wasn't so convenient, I would have switched doctors.
First of all, the room where he examines patients also doubles as his office. You walk in, on the left there is your normal examination bed/chair with the white paper over it. To the right is a large desk, CEO wheely chair, complete with enormous computer and all the trimmings. He encouraged me to set in a chair in front of the desk while he sat at the computer. I felt like I had been called into my boss's office, and the level of respect was about the same.
Then he proceeded to finish making a few calls, one to a man that he told his chlamydia test had come back positive. Great, I need to sit in on that convo with a 102 fever feeling like I'm about to die. Then while I was trying to tell him my symptoms he continued to type on his computer, answering emails, surfing the internet, who knows. Just when I thought I might get his attention, when he was done with the calls and the computer, he pulled out his Blackberry and starts typing away on it.
I doubt he heard anything I said. Being a new patient I was trying to explain my past history of throat infections so he could evaluate my current condition more effectively. But instead, he looks at my throat for 30 seconds, and then prescribes an antibiotic that turned out to do nothing, leaving me to be sick for over a week and end up in a ear, nose and throat specialist's office and almost the ER. I could tell the ENT doctor was trying to be nice, but she clearly stated at one point that she had no idea why he would prescribe me with the medication that he did, that it is the least affective antibiotic for this sort of thing.
WOW! I will never return to see Dr. Fagelman again. I don't recommend anyone else see him if they value their health.